Kennisis Lake is the 2nd largest lake in the Haliburton Highlands with a surface area of over in the area of Ontario just south west of Algonquin Provincial Park. From end to end, the lake is approximately long. There is a smaller counterpart, named Little Kennisis Lake. The lakes shoreline lots are almost entirely privately owned, with the newest residences and summer homes being built on the western shore accessible by West Shore Road. Kennisis Lake is bordered by Haliburton Forest on the north and east, nearby Algonquin Provincial Park to the north, and also a third tract land to the west which is a tract of Crown land referred to as the Frost Center Area, after Leslie M. Frost. The lake is accessible through the town of West Guilford on County Road 7, Kennisis Lake Road. History Origins and Ownership Big and Little Lake Kennisis lie in the geographical Township of Havelock and the Municipality of Dysart in Haliburton County, Central Ontario, Canada. The Township of Havelock was named after British general Sir Henry Havelock after his success in relieving the city Lucknow during the 1857 Mutiny in India. Lake Kennisis itself was originally named Lake Alexandra by the Canadian Land and Emigration Company (C.L. & E.C.) to honor Alexandra, Princess of Wales. The name was also an attempt by the company directors of London to make the area more appealing to British settlers, but the names didn't remain for long. In 1859, the Crown Land Department of the Province of Canada offered the ten townships of the area for sale with the hope that private enterprise would be enable them to be open to settlement. Sir Francis Bond Head, former Governor of Upper Canada, had interested potential investors in England, and was expected to be chairman of the C.L. & E.C., which was incorporated in London in 1861. Yet, Thomas Chandler Haliburton, reputable author, lawyer, justice of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court, and Member of the British Parliament, took Head's place after he turned down the position. After negotiation between the company and the Province of Canada in 1864, the C.L. & E.C. gained ownership of the ten townships. Haliburton's name was given to the settlement in Dysart Township that same year and to the county in 1874 when three townships from Victoria Country and twenty from Peterborough County were joined to create the Provisional County of Haliburton.